A Whole New World
by Bukkunkun
Summary: Alfred is marine biologist that accidentally discovers Atlantis. Alternatively, this can also be known as the fic in which Alfred and Kiku have science boners. Written for Day 4 of the USUK Summer Camp 2012. USUK, Merman!AU


OMFG I THINK I'M LATE THIS TIME DAMN IT SCHOOL

* * *

"Alfred-san! Alfred-san!" Kiku's excited voice caught Alfred's attention, pulling it away from the sea urchins he was staring at intently. "The submarine has arrived!"

Alfred's eyes brightened up, and he dropped what he was holding to run out of the laboratory, a grin so wide on his face his cheeks hurt as he rushed out onto the deck of the boat as it gently swayed in the calm seawater. He let out a breath of awe as he looked down at the small submarine that looked like it had come out of the movies Alfred watched.

"It's so cool!" he cheered brightly, leaning over the handrail of the boat to look at it. "Oh, my gosh, finally they decided to spend money on this project!"

"Yes," Kiku nodded, "With this, we can see if there's life all the way down there in the trench." The Japanese man walked up next to him, also smiling down at the submarine. "A new discovery. I cannot wait."

"Me too!" Alfred bounced on his heels as the captain of their ship approached them.

"You'd have better calm down first," Captain Ludwig Weillschmidt sternly said, like a father would to a rowdy child, "It would do you no good if you got hurt."

"Aye-eye!" Alfred cheered brightly, giving the man a mock-salute. Ludwig sighed, crossing his arms, shaking his head fondly.

"Well, let's get set-up, Alfred-san," Kiku said, the smile on his face widening, the usually calm and stoic man now just as excited as his friend was, only in a more calm, somewhat collected way. "Let's waste no time!"

"Be back before dusk." Ludwig said, "Feliciano's making dinner tonight to celebrate the submarine."

"Awesome!" Alfred pumped his fist into the air, before dragging Kiku along with him inside the lab to collect what equipment they needed.

* * *

The dive was surreal, to say the least. As he and Kiku descended into the dark depths of the trench, the light above them diminished little by little, as fish swam past them, the two scientists huddled together inside the small cockpit looking at them with starry-eyed wonder, mouths agape in awe and excitement as they eagerly monitored their surroundings, turning the light of their submarine around to see what hid in the darkness around them.

"_Ship to submarine. Can you read me?_" Ludwig's voice crackled over their communications speaker.

"Loud and clear, Captain!" Alfred smiled, "Everything's good, so far; brilliant, even!"

"Alfred! Look! The _Melanocetus johnsonii_!" Kiku pulled at Alfred's lab coat excitedly. "It's my first time seeing it live like this!"

"Where, where?" Alfred gasped, turning his attention to the window of the cockpit, pressing his nose to the thick glass. "Oh my fucking _God_, it's so _beautiful_!"

"Isn't it? Look at its fins! How I'd love to get a sample of them back at the lab!"

"Oh, my God! Kiku! It's the _Eurypharynx pelecanoides_!" Alfred, giddy, bounced in his seat as he scrabbled at the controls to take photos of the rare specimen. "I can't believe our luck!"

Kiku was getting giddy as well, as his usually nimble fingers stumbled over the control panels, regulating their speed of descent and depressurizing the cockpit.

"_That's nice and all, but I can't understand a thing you're saying, you two_," Feliciano suddenly whined over the line, "_But it sounds like you're having fun down there, ve~_"

Alfred and Kiku shared looks and chuckled, as they heard Ludwig wrestle Feliciano away from the communications computer.

It was all magical, and Alfred felt the rush of euphoria wash over him—

When suddenly their little submarine jolted with a loud bang, as something they couldn't see rammed into them, sending their submarine spinning. Alfred grit his teeth and gripped the controls, rushing to right their submarine, and when he had somehow managed to right it, they were hit again from another angle, and Alfred wrenched the controls sharply to the right, trying to get away from their assailant.

"_What's going on? What happened?_" Ludwig demanded.

"We're being attacked by something, we don't know what!" Kiku replied, his voice panicked.

"Turn the light off!" he yelled at Kiku, who nodded and did as he was told. All the lights in their cockpit dimmed into darkness, the only light meeting their eyes were from the buttons on the control panel that remained lit in the darkness. So far away from the surface, the surroundings were pitch-black, no more light piercing the dense water. Alfred and Kiku held their breaths, praying silently that their assailant would leave, they can't be seen, there's not a single light—

Their submarine jolted again, and Alfred swore.

"Shit!"

"_Pull up, pull up. Get out of there, you two._" Ludwig ordered, and Alfred immediately obeyed, pulling up the controls, and their submarine began to ascend—

Their submarine jolted again, sending shockwaves running through them.

"_Keep going!_" Ludwig barked, his tone urgent.

Kiku was frantically monitoring the pressurization and speed, as Alfred kept pointing the submarine up. As they ascended, light began to return to their vision, and Alfred could see a faint shadow a ways away from them. His eyes widened.

It was large, sized similarly to a human, with a long caudal fin like a shark's at the end of its tail, two second dorsal fins a little higher than the caudal keel, and another pair of pelvic fins higher than those.

Alfred couldn't see the top half of the creature, however, blurred by the dark water. The blonde scientist blinked. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

They were undisturbed the higher they went, until finally they made it to the surface, where Ludwig and Feliciano were waiting for them. The brunette Italian fussed over the two of them, Kiku exasperated at all the attention showered onto him, but Alfred merely let it slide, his mind far too occupied with what he saw down there in the water.

* * *

More than anything, it intrigued him more than scared him, and soon, Alfred found himself walking out on deck, basking in the moonlight, whilst behind him, Ludwig, Kiku and Feliciano were most likely fast asleep. Checking his watch, Alfred nodded.

11:30 PM. He had around three hours, give or take.

He climbed into the submarine as quietly as he could, and deployed it, descending just like what he and Kiku had done a few hours ago.

He left the lights off, this time, so as not to alarm whatever was in the dark water, and when he saw the depth readers reach depths past a thousand metres, he strained his eyes to look into the dark water, but it was all pitch-black, especially now that night had fallen. His only sources of light were the small red and green lights of the control panel under his hands, but he shrugged out of his lab coat and draped it over the buttons, dimming the lights further. He shouldn't alarm anything like this—

And that was when he saw it: a pair of startling green eyes staring right back at him.

Alfred's heart leapt into his throat and he leaned backwards, screaming in shock as the submarine jolted again, taking yet another beating from its assailant before. Panicked, Alfred screwed his eyes shut and reached for the communications line and opened the channel, pulling the microphone close to himself and yelling, "Stop! Please! Just stop!"

Had Alfred been thinking straight and not panicking, he would have dismissed the notion of even _thinking_ of talking to whatever was attacking him would have worked, but he was far too gone into his fear to think it through—he was going to _die_, damn it, never to see the light of day again, decaying in a watery grave—

The pummelling miraculously stopped, and Alfred tentatively opened his eyes to find the same pair of green eyes staring at him from the darkness of the water. His own eyes widened in surprise, and he leant forward, grasping the knob for the brightness of the spotlights.

He turned it slightly, so a dim light shone on what was outside. He gasped.

Hovering in front of the window of the cockpit was a full-fledged _merman_.

He had a human top half—creamy white skin, untouched by sunlight, and scraggly sandy-blonde hair, at his neck four slits, two at each side; gills, like a shark's—and his bottom half was a beautiful green tail, with the fins Alfred had identified when all he saw was a silhouette.

The sight itself was amazing, but what truly captivated Alfred was the intensity of the merman's eyes—they were the most vibrant shade of green Alfred had ever seen, more beautiful than the species of chlorophyta (_Ulva prolifera_, Alfred reminded himself, he needed to see the salinity of the area later) he and Kiku had seen the other day, and _what was that merman doing_—

The merman pressed his lips to the glass, cupping his hands around his mouth (they were webbed, Alfred had noted) and mouthed, "_What are you doing here?_"

Alfred blinked. "… Are you talking to me?" he asked into the microphone. The merman rolled his eyes.

"_No, I'm talking to the contraption you're in. Of course I'm talking to you!_"

Alfred would have laughed, if he wasn't so entranced by the beautiful creature outside his window.

"I'm… I'm Dr. Alfred Jones. I'm a marine biologist." The merman gave him a blank look. "Uh, I'm a scholar. I study the life in the sea."

"… _You're not a treasure hunter? Or a poacher?_"

"No. I wouldn't hurt any animal! I study them, I don't kill them!" he carefully left out the dissections he carried out in his undergrad, the merman really didn't need to know he cut up cats, frogs and sharks.

The merman looked contemplative, easing away from the window, giving him a look.

"I swear." Alfred pressed, "My friend and I came down here to study the life at the bottom of the trench. See the beauty of diversity."

"_You won't hurt anyone?_" the merman asked, and Alfred nodded.

"Swear." He confirmed, crossing his heart. The merman's eyes widened at this, and he pressed his hands against the window.

"_You know how to do the Vow_?" the merman asked, and Alfred blinked.

"What?" he blinked, and the merman threw his hands up.

"_Wait here._"

He swam away, and Alfred sat there, at a loss on what to do. He didn't have to think for long, however, when the merman came back, holding what seems to be a seaweed.

"Whoa, I didn't think there'd be some rhodophyta this deep," he said, and the merman eyed him strangely. "Sorry," he apologised, and the merman shook his head, before offering the weed to him. "… Wait, you want me to _eat _that?"

The merman nodded, and Alfred pulled a face, unsure.

"_Just eat it, and then come outside,_" the merman shrugged, and Alfred gaped at him in shock.

"Excuse me; the pressure down here is enough to crush my brain, for crying out loud!" he protested, and the merman laughed at him, gesturing at himself: _What about me, then?_

Alfred grumbled, annoyed, before controlling the extending arm of the submarine to take the weed from the merman. The merman looked on in interest as the metal arm approached him. He tentatively poked it for a moment, before giving it the weed. Alfred brought it into the submarine, and picking it up, he eyed it oddly, before looking at the merman.

The blonde merman only nodded, urging him on. Swallowing, Alfred tore off one part of it and put it into his mouth. The salty flavour made him shudder as he forced himself to chew it, before taking some more and eating it—

Suddenly there was a searing pain in his neck, and he doubled over in pain, gasping for air, falling over. He barely heard the merman pounding on the window, the pain searing through him blindingly, as the urge to get into water grew more and more. He pulled off his clothes hurriedly and entered the water chamber of the submarine, his glasses clattering onto the floor as he threw them off. Closing the hatch behind him, scratching at his neck as the pain grew, before punching the button that air-locked the chamber. He gripped the latch to outside and undid it, the rush of water through the doorway hitting him like a train, robbing him of his breath, easing the burning pain in his respiratory system—what?

Alfred blinked, opening his eyes, and much to his surprise, he could see clear as day—in saltwater, even! His eyes weren't getting irritated, surprisingly, and he looked down at his hands to find they were webbed, just like the merman's. Shock taking over him, Alfred looked down—and his legs were no longer there, instead, a beautiful blue tail was in its place, looking just like the merman's. Eyes wide in wonder, he experimentally swished his tail—it was just like moving his legs, except that they were bound together and were impossible to separate.

"Much better." An unfamiliar voice said behind him, and he turned to see the merman swimming up to him. "I was getting worried you might have drowned in that contraption of yours."

"I, uh, well," Alfred gestured uselessly with his hand. "Gosh. I can't even _begin _to tell you how amazed I am to meet you, this is all so exciting, and well, I can't—"

"Hush," the merman hushed him, putting a cool finger to Alfred's lips. The gesture was intimate in itself, and Alfred found himself blushing, suddenly very self-conscious at how he was very much without a top. Silently, he gratefully thought about the workouts he had been doing to qualify for his and Kiku's expedition. The merman swam around him, inspecting him. "So, you are a doctor? What are your methods of healing?"

"O-oh, well, I'm not a medical doctor, I, uh—whoa!" the merman swam right up to him and leaned close, their noses almost touching at their close proximity. "H-hey, back off a bit? Personal space here."

"You just said you were a doctor. Now you are a personal space?" the merman frowned, and it was almost comical, but Alfred was too flustered to really think about it.

"No, I'm a doctor of philosophy," the merman looked lost, and Alfred sighed, "It's just a title, okay? I'm not really a _doctor_-doctor, but you get the idea."

"Unfortunately, I cannot." The merman shook his head, and Alfred chuckled.

"Ah, never mind. Say, mind giving me your name? So I don't have to you know, call you 'the merman' in my head."

"My name is Arthur." The blonde said, "And, well, actually," his expression turned sheepish. "I'm not really supposed to be here." Alfred gaped at him. "I just snuck away from Atlantis to see what all the ruckus was about. Michael—my friend shark—had been really excited about some sort of contraption wandering around this deep, and well, the eels have been rather noisy about it too… I was curious."

Alfred blinked. "Really?"

Arthur bit his lip. "But when I saw your contraption, I thought that you were just raiders that came to destroy my home, so I," he looked away. "I'm very sorry."

"Well, I'm willing to forgive," Alfred nodded, "Just, uh, don't do that again. We're not bad guys, alright?"

Arthur nodded. "Well, you came here to look around, right? Shall I show you?"

"Y-you'd really do that?"

Arthur nodded, and Alfred smiled brightly. "Let's do it, then!"

* * *

Hand in hand, Alfred and Arthur swam together until they reached a beautiful kingdom glimmering a soft golden glow underneath a bubble that was protecting it. Alfred's eyes were wide with delight and wonder as Arthur led him through the town, waving at other mer-people left and right, showing Alfred the sights and sounds hidden safely away under the sea.

"This is a whole new world for me," Alfred confided, when they had reached a small hilltop a ways away from the palace. "It's amazing."

"It's called Atlantis. This is my home." Arthur gripped his hands. "But now, you have to promise something, with that Vow of yours you made back in your contraption."

"Anything."

"You mustn't tell the world of my home, please." Alfred's eyes widened. "I beg you, don't. I want it safe and protected, far away from harm. You'll promise me that, won't you?"

"… But, my research," Alfred's words died on his tongue when he saw Arthur's look, pleading and hopeful, and he sighed. "Yeah, okay. I promise."

A soft smile crossed Arthur's face. "It is a promise, then." He nodded, before leaning in to kiss him. Alfred's eyes widened and he pulled away, his face bright red. Arthur merely looked at him, not amused.

"Oh, come on. That is how we seal promises here." He rolled his eyes, before giving Alfred a small peck on his cheek. "And, maybe, you are rather handsome." He chuckled, before handing Alfred some more of the weed he had fed the man. "Keep this. You're welcome to come back any time."

Blankly, Alfred nodded, taking it from Arthur, who chuckled.

"Also, you may want to eat a bit more of that if you don't want to die."

No matter how bad the taste was, Alfred chomped down one long leaf, Arthur laughing at him as he made faces, forcing the half-chewed rhodophyta down his throat.

* * *

Returning to the submarine, Alfred had realised Arthur had fallen quiet and he looked over his shoulder to see the blonde merman had fallen back. "Arthur?" he asked, and the merman jolted, his green eyes widening as he looked away from whatever it was he was looking at to look at Alfred. "Is something wrong?"

"I was wondering if, if," he blushed, "If you were going to come back soon."

Alfred smiled gently. "Of course. I'll even show you _my_ home this time. You've already seen a bit of it," he gestured at the submarine. "I'm getting a feeling you'll _love_ the surface world. It's not filled to the brim with bad people, you know."

"Yes, I know." Arthur smiled, and Alfred blinked. He swam up to the blue-eyed man and looked up at him, leaning close and invading his personal space. "If I may offer you a small amount of relief, I'd like to tell you that I have been watching you for a while, actually." The scientist's eyes widened and he looked down at the merman looking up at him from between softly floating locks of sandy blonde hair. "I've seen you look at everything in the sea like they were the most beautiful things you have ever seen, and really, that made me so happy." He sighed, "All this time I had thought all humans knew was to take and steal and destroy—and yet, there is another kind of you humans, those that love my kind—you do not know what happiness knowing that brings to me."

"Oh, I think I'm pretty sure," Alfred chuckled, before leaning and kissing Arthur soundly. Pulling, Arthur gave him an odd look.

"I have not pledged any vows to you," he said, and Alfred shook his head.

"On the surface, babe," he winked, and that made Arthur blush, "That means you like someone." He chuckled. "And I think I may like you just enough to take you up on that invitation to your home." He grinned when Arthur started to look anywhere but Alfred. "And you're invited to mine. A whole new world, right?"

Arthur's eyes filled with excited curiosity as he looked at Alfred, lips curling up into a delighted smile.

"Yes, a whole new world." He nodded, and shyly he took Alfred's hands. "It's a promise."

"Seal it for me, then." Alfred grinned.

"And I shall mean it like how you humans do." Arthur chuckled softly, before leaning ever closer and pressing their lips together.

* * *

So, uh. Science boners. I had quite a bit of fun writing the science geeking out and researching so I got things right, I even italicised the species names (because at school they like, require not only that the genus be capitalized, but also that the name has to be underlined! So very picky, my professors!) and everything. God, I love science /sobbing

So, uh. Enjoy. It's a bit late today because of said science, hahaha. XD

Oh and it's my mom's birthday, uh, in the not-Asian timezone. Happy birthday mama!


End file.
